Channel Frederator Blog

Disney has announced their 2009 release slate of films. These include Pinocchio: 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition (March 10) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Platinum Edition in October. Pixar will be releasing Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life.

Hopefully these Blu-Ray releases will be a better release than that of Sleeping Beauty last year, which received mixed reviews, mostly due to picture quality issues such as DVNR, oversaturated colors, and color timing. There was a post about these issues and the release back in November on Cartoon Brew.

I don’t know if Walt Disney Home Entertainment has learned anything (or changed anything) since their last classic on BluRay release, but I hope they did. The issues listed here are what kept me from buying the Blu Ray release of Sleeping Beauty.

-Floyd Bishop

There is a piece on “Sleeping Beauty” over at the Art of Disney Animation blog.  The post includes lots of art from the film’s artistic director Eyvind Earle. [Read more…]

Disney will be releasing “Sleeping Beauty” on Blu Ray disc in October. The title will also be available on DVD.

In production from 1951 until the end of 1958, this film set a record for the longest production schedule in the studio’s history. This record was later tied by “The Black Cauldron”. Featuring elaborate backgrounds and a much more angular character design, this film was initially no favorite of critics.

While the film seems to drag in some spots, it gives us perhaps one of the best villains in animation, Maleficant.

Maleficant is pure evil, from here color scheme, to her voice by Eleanor Audley (also the voice of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion), and animation by Marc Davis. In my opinion, the film is worth the purchase price just to see her in action in HD.

-Floyd Bishop